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Exactly when beer was first brewed cannot be determined. Two slate tablets are displayed in the British Museum in London, which were, in the year 1926, scientifically estimated to be about 9000 years old. The scientist, a Mr. E. Huber, was of the opinion that the inscriptions on these tablets showed the coarse milling of emmer (A prehistoric grain type, similar to spelt, used for the brewing of beer). He concluded that this was possibly the oldest evidence of the brewing of beer. More recent research has indicated that the tablets are probably not so old as Mr. Huber thought and that even the connection with the brewing process may be doubtful. The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6000 years old and refer to the
Sumarians Sumaria
lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, encompassing Southern Mesopotamia.
The Sumarians discovered the fermentation process by chance. Of course, nobody
knows today, exactly how this occurred, but it could be that a piece of bread
became wet and was simply forgotten. After a short time the bread began to
ferment and a inebriating pulp resulted. The Sumarians were able to repeat this
process and are assumed to be he first civilized culture to brew beer. They had
discovered a "divine drink" which they offered to their gods.
GilgameshFrom the Gilgamesh Epic, written in the 3rd millennium B.C., we learn that not only bread but also beer were very important. This epic is recognized as one of the first great works of world literature. Ancient oral sagas from the beginning of human history were recorded in writing for the first time. The Gilgamesh Epic describes the evolution from primitive man to "cultured man".
"(..)Enkidu knew not, what bread was nor how one ate it. He had also not learned to drink beer. The whore opened her mouth and spoke to Enkidu: `Eat the bread now, O Enkidu, as it belongs to life. Drink also beer, as it is the custom of the land. (..) " Enkidu drank seven cups of beer and his heart soared. In this condition he washed himself and became a human being. The Sumarian empire collapsed during the 2nd millennium B.C., hopefully not because of their beer consumption, and the
Babylonians became the rulers of Mesopotamia.
Their culture was derived from that of the Sumarians, and as a consequence of
this, they also mastered the art of brewing beer. Today we know that the
Babylonians new how to brew 20 different types of beer. Of these, 8 were brewed
from pure emmer, 8 from pure barley and 4 from a mixture of grains. In
Babylonian times beer was cloudy and unfiltered. The predecessor of the drinking
straw was used to avoid getting the brewing residue, which was very bitter, in
the mouth. Lager beer was even exported to Egypt, 1000 kilometers away.
Hammurabi, an important Babylonian
king and empire founder, decreed the oldest known collection of laws. One of
these laws established a daily beer ration. This ration was dependent on the
social standing of the individual. For example, a normal worker received 2
liters, civil servants 3 liters, and administrators and high priests 5 liters
per day. In these ancient times beer was not sold, but exchanged for barley. As
beer brewing was a household art, it was women's work. King Hammurabi ordered a
female saloonkeeper drowned because she accepted silver for her beer. Drowning
was also the punishment for serving low quality beer. The
Egyptians carried on
the tradition of beer brewing. They also used unbaked bread dough for making
beer. Peasants along the Nile, the so-called Fellahs, still make beer the same
way today. The Egyptians added dates to the brew to improve the taste. The
importance of beer brewing in ancient Egypt, can be seen from the fact that the
scribes created an extra hieroglyph for "brewer".
After Egypt was succeeded by the Greeks and
Romansbeer continued to be brewed. Plinius reported of the popularity of beer in the Mediterranean area before the growing of grapes for wine took hold. Thereafter, in Rome itself, wine became the drink of the gods (Bacchus). Beer was only brewed in the outer areas of the Roman Empire where wine was difficult to obtain. For the Romans, who almost exclusively drank wine, beer was a horrible barbarian drink. As Tacitus, who first wrote an extensive report about the ancient Germans, the
Teutonsput it: "To drink, the Teutons have a horrible brew fermented from barley or wheat, a brew which has only a very far removed similarity to wine".Beer of that era could not be stored, was cloudy and produced almost no foam.
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Enkidu, a shaggy, unkempt, almost beastial primitive man, who ate grass and
could milk wild animals, wanted to test his strength against Gilgamesh, the
demigod-like sovereign. Taking no chances, Gilgamesh sent a whore to Enkidu to
learn of his strengths and weaknesses. Enkidu enjoyed a week with her, during
which she taught him of civilization:
The oldest proof that beer was
brewed on German soil, comes from the early Hallstatt Period (about 800 B.C.).
Bier amphora found near the present day Kulmbach have been dated back to this
time. A few hundred years after the birth of Christ, beer was a standard
commercial article. This was confirmed by the finding of a beer seller's mug
near Trier. The ancient Germans regarded beer not only as a sacrifice to the
gods but also brewed beer, as in Egypt, for their own enjoyment and it played an
important role in their daily lives. For example, in the Finnish poetic saga
Kalewala, 400 verses are devoted to beer but only 200 were needed for the
creation of the earth. According to the Edda, the great Nordic epic, wine was
reserved for the gods, beer belonged to mortals and mead to inhabitants of the
realm of the dead. Baking bread and brewing beer were the work of women in the
first centuries after the birth of Christ and remained so until the 
